Pittsburgh Pirates swept by Brewers with 6-1 loss

4. 6. 76. Final. 1

The Milwaukee Brewers completed the weekend sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday, taking the third and final game of the series by a score of 6-1. A four run eighth inning proved to be all the Brewers would need as the Pirates could not figure out starter Taylor Jungmann or the Brewers’ bullpen. The loss puts the Pirates at 53-38 entering play on Monday, still trailing the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central.

Not only did the Pirates lose the game, but they lost Jordy Mercer in the second inning when Carlos Gomez took him out with a slide on his way to second base. Mercer was carted off the field and Jung Ho Kang moved to shortstop and Sean Rodriguez entered the game at third. The team will hopefully provide an update on Mercer soon, but the injury looked bad and could sideline the shortstop for a while.

The game was a pitcher’s duel between Jeff Locke and Jungmann until the fifth inning when Locke helped his own cause and singled in Jaff Decker, who had tripled earlier. But the Brewers took the lead in the seventh inning off of a double by Khris Davis, which scored Gomez and Aramis Ramirez.

Locke made it into the eighth inning but things quickly fell apart and he was replaced by Jared Hughes. Jonathan Lucroy came around to score on an error by Travis Ishikawa, but replays showed that the ball may have been incorrectly ruled as fair. Ramirez followed that with a sacrifice fly to center field that brought in Ryan Braun. Shane Peterson put the final nail in the coffin with a two run double and advanced to third on Decker’s throwing error, making the score 6-1.

Arquimedes Caminero was brought in to get the last out of the eighth inning and did just that, but the five run lead proved to be too much to overcome. Francisco Cervelli‘s walk was the only base runner the Pirates had against Neal Cotts in the ninth inning and Cervelli never advanced past first base.

What Stood Out

Baseball has a season of 162 games and a bad three-game series should not be much cause for alarm. But this is a team that took three of four against the St. Louis Cardinals and now has dropped three in a row to the Brewers, a much worse baseball team. Things will not get any easier for the Pirates as they have three games in Kansas City and then host the Washington Nationals for four games next weekend. They’ll need to perform well to stay within striking distance of the Cardinals.

Jordy Mercer Injured as Milwaukee Brewers Sweep Pittsburgh Pirates

By Ethan Obstarczyk | Jul 19, 2015